This apicultural (beekeeping) project takes part in the rural township of Simbolar, in the province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Victor Navarro, who leads the project, has attained all the necessary qualifications and now has some 15 years experience as an apiarist both in the teaching and the practice of apiculture. Victor started with a couple of bee-hives and gradually expanded this number by having a group of hives also placing hives with neighbours on their land and provided them training in the subject. Victor now possesses over 400 hives around Simbolar and has a few also in the Chaco province north of Santiago del Estero.

Having the hives and the bees which produce the honey and its by-products is one thing, but there is a need to have a suitable building wherein the honey can be extracted from the honeycomb and bottled. This currently is a problem for Victor. He has been using a small room attached to his local church but it is totally inadequate. On a separate plot of land it was Victor’s plan to construct a purpose built facility, a laboratory/extraction centre in which all the necessary procedures could be carried out. In addition to the extraction of the honey he is keen to obtain the bee pollen, the propolis and bee venom for pharmaceutical purposes as well as breeding queen bees. Victor started constructing a building but it soon ground to a halt due to the lack of finances. The proposed solution is to provide Victor with funds to enable him to continue developing the building and for this purpose The Esperanza Trust and True Volunteer Foundation have jointly provided a grant for the building to move towards completion.